Back Home
by Marshmallows rock
Summary: Immeadiately after Hand of Fear, Sarah meets up with Harry. As she tries to adjust to life on Earth again, her plans are completely blown off course when the Doctor takes her and Harry on one last trip. 4, Sarah, Harry, Romana II, UNIT
1. Return to Earth

A little idea that's been rattling round my head for a while. By the way has anyone seen the February issue of Doctor Who magazine? Tom Baker under threat of a Dalek. By the way I don't own this.

Set after Hand of Fear.

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Sarah Jane Smith pulled her suitcase off the train, feeling devoutly thankful that the train station was not too far away from Hillview Road. It had taken forever to get from Aberdeen to South Croydon, and for the thirty second time that day, she cursed the Doctor for not taking her to the right place. She had a feeling that it wouldn't be exactly where she wanted to end up, but was furious it was so far off course.  
Struggling to the front of her house ten minutes later was when Sarah realised her house key was in the bottom of her bag.

" Drat!" Sarah swore under her breath and dumped her stuff on the doorstep, only getting the key after tipping almost everything out of the bag.

The door unlocked and opened, she went in. It was the first time in two years she had been in her house. The woman next door had been taking care of it so it was relatively clean but it didn't feel like home. The only place that would ever feel like home now was the TARDIS.

Then it hit her. The realisation that she would never step back inside the TARDIS. No more adventures. No more Daleks. No more landing in an abandoned mine, getting knocked out in an explosion and being possessed by a weird hand. The day had been exciting enough but the end was not pleasant. The Doctor had had to go back to Gallifrey and told her she could not come with him. Seconds before she left she stood, daring him to say something to stop her but all he did was fiddle with another bit of the long suffering TARDIS.

The day's events combined with these unhappy thoughts became just too much for Sarah. She fell down on her sofa and collapsed into tears. When she eventually finished crying, she was so worn out that she slept there all night.

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The next day was a bit of a shock. Sarah had been hoping it was all a weird nightmare, but unfortunately not. She was fairly surprised to find she was still on the sofa in yesterday's clothes, and was just about to go and make breakfast when the doorbell rang. Wishing she had time to smarten up, Sarah opened the door and gave a cry of surprise.

Because on the doorstep stood Harry Sullivan.


	2. Keeping up Appearances

Thank you, Timegoddess for reviewing!

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" Harry!" was all Sarah thought of to say at the sight of her former companion.  
Harry smiled. " When did you get back, Sarah?"

" Oh, just last night. Do you want to come in?"  
Sarah pulled the door open a bit wider and sprinted two at a time up the stairs, yelling something about getting ready properly, and telling Harry to sit down.

Harry had never been in Sarah's house before. He sat down on the sofa which she had just got up off a minute ago. He looked around. It was fairly tidy and neat, although the pile of things in the hall had told him just how recently she had got home.

A picture on the coffee table caught his eye, mainly because he was in it. He recognised it. The Doctor was on the left, grinning madly at the camera, he was on the right, not grinning quite as manically and Sarah was in the middle.

The latter came rushing downstairs, now dressed in a blue blouse and black skirt with her hair considerably tidier than it had been earlier. She went into the kitchen, offered him some toast, jammed a couple of slices of bread in the toaster and came to sit down beside him.

Harry was longing to ask a question although he thought it might upset Sarah. Just when he had decided not to say a word about it, his brain went one way and his mouth went the other: " How come you're back here? I thought you still were travelling?"

Sarah, who had just put two plates of toast on the table, sat down with a thud. _" Well done, Sullivan (!)"_ Harry crossly told himself.

She could see he felt bad about it and smiled. " Bit of a long story really. But you don't have anywhere to go now, do you?"

Harry smiled back. " Not that I know of."

Knowing she would have to fight to keep her composure in tact, Sarah took a deep breath and started from the moment the TARDIS landed in the quarry.

" So to cut a long story short, he got a summons to head back to Gallifrey, said I couldn't come and dropped me off in what he thought was the street outside."

" Where was it?"

" Aberdeen!" Sarah told him crossly. She felt tears welling up in her eyes and fought hard to keep them from spilling and therefore saying how upset she really was. Appearances are everything and she told herself that she didn't want to appear weak and would never get over him-ish.

Harry stood up and said, thoughtfully," Are you going back to work today?"  
Sarah shook her head. " Probably not."

" Then why don't you come out with me for a day? Just out for lunch or something?"  
Sarah's exotic eyes lit up. It was clear she liked the idea, and she went upstairs to get her shoes and purse. Harry stood by the front door, as he waited for her. To tell the truth, he was more than a little concerned about her, as he saw how many times she was close to crying, and she never cried over anything. Maybe this would be harder for her than he thought…


	3. Fever Talk

Well thank you whoever said this was slow because it has this chapter possibly a bit more action packed, mehopes.

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It was five days later and Sarah woke up feeling weak and shaky with a very sore throat. She had hardly talked to anyone over the past few days about how she felt, not to Harry, not to her friend at work Louise, not to anybody. Therefore it was hardly surprising she felt so rubbish. She tried to get up out of bed and immeadiately fell down.

Growing scared, Sarah forced herself to get up when she heard the doorbell ring. She had completely forgotten that Harry was driving her this morning because her own car had decided that breaking down about 3 streets away from her house was a good idea yesterday morning.

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Going downstairs to open the front door took almost all her energy. She had caught how pale she was in the hall mirror and knew going to work today was a bad idea. Anyway Sarah was going to tell this to him when she opened the door and it was decided for her.

" Somehow I think it would be a bad idea to go out today," Sarah half moaned, grasping the door for support.

Harry grabbed her hand to steady her." Sarah, you're absolutely burning up!" he told her

Half delirious, Sarah didn't give a damn, not an expression she used very often but nevertheless.

Harry took her back up the stairs to her bedroom, and went to get a cold compress to try and cool her down.

When he came back, she was half asleep and kept moaning things in her semi conscious state, things that he couldn't make out. There was nothing he could do except wait for the fever to go away.

Little known to Harry, Sarah kept reliving things from her unhappy childhood;

She was six and the only child in her class that never had anybody from her family come to concerts or sports days or anything; she was nine and spent as much time away from her shattered home life as possible, down in the secret creek near her home only she knew about; she was twelve and hid, crying in her bedroom, as her parents screamed at each other downstairs; she was thirteen, lying in preparation for her French exam question, not saying the only reason her home life kept functioning was because she did the housework and stuff because her parents were too busy arguing to notice; she was fifteen and ducking a plate her mother had just thrown at her, because she was late coming back from a day with her friend. Her parents never came to school meetings, when they did, they usually caused a tremendous fuss, because they were so always angry. When, after one such humiliating parents evening when she was fourteen, and her Latin teacher had asked her kindly if all was OK at home, Sarah had stammered that yes everything was fine, no, home life was perfectly stable, and rushed off before the truth spilled out.

When her moans eventually became comprehensible, she was crying even in her sleep. From what Harry could make out, she was obviously reliving the shock, terror and sadness she felt at the Doctor's regeneration.

Suddenly she woke up, and her scream sent chills, shivers and Arctic waves up Harry's spine, a ghost of a scream, swallowed down years before. Instantly he hugged her and kept whispering she was OK until she calmed down. Obviously all this stuff from over the years had become too much, Harry thought, thinking straws, camels and backs.

When she eventually did, Sarah started to talk, like an emotional dam inside of her had burst its banks. How she felt about the Doctor leaving her and everything. As she came to the end of this last statement, there was a very familiar whooshing sound from out in the street.

" It can't be…" Sarah gasped, as she tried unsteadily to go to the window, Harry close behind.

" Wait here," he told her and went down the stairs. Sarah tried to follow him, she knew it was a bad idea but she didn't care; she wanted to tell the Doctor how hurt and upset she was he had left her; how he hadn't even got the coordinates right for dropping her off.

The minute Harry opened the door was the minute Sarah made it to the bottom of the stairs. She tried to stand on ahead of him but it was taking so much effort.

The Doctor was surprised to see not only Harry in the house but also to see Sarah answering the door in her pyjamas, white as a ghost and having trouble keeping her balance. It was as if she was drunk, but, no, the Doctor thought, Sarah didn't get drunk.

" Doctor! You didn't even leave me in the right place!" Sarah started to scream, all her anger was now vented at him. " You left me in-"  
Exactly where was to remain unknown for the next thirty years, as all Sarah's energy left her at this point and she collapsed into unconsciousness.

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Well a bit bizarre but there ya go! I hate it when you have a great idea but can't get it out properly.


	4. Moral dilemma

Okaaaaaaaaaaaay! Presenting the next chapter of 'How could it compare?' By the way I really have to think of a better title.

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Sarah's collapse had shocked Harry to the core. He sat in the hospital corridor, having decided that calling an ambulance was the best thing to do. Thinking about the events of the last hour.

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"_What's the matter with her, Harry?" The Doctor stood looking rather concerned in the doorway of Sarah's house, as Sarah lay unconscious on the hall floor, while Harry checked her temperature, pulse, etc. Her fever was alarmingly high and her pulse had quickened._

"_I don't know, Doctor," Harry said, frowning slightly. She's not been herself at all today._

_The Doctor thought. "Do you think maybe I should come back later?"_

_Harry had to think about that one. He didn't know if the Doctor would ever come back for Sarah at all, but he just couldn't be here now._

"_Possibly, Doctor," he said, reaching for the phone, and at the same time taking a mental note of it._

_The Doctor shut the door. A few seconds later, the TARDIS whooshed away, as the people of Hillview Road muttered about practical jokes._

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Harry went in to see Sarah. She was quite pale but better looking than she had been earlier.

"Feeling better, old girl?" he said. She didn't have the energy to protest.

"A bit. Head still hurts." Then a thought occurred to her.

"Harry, I have to ask you something and I need you to tell me the truth," she began.

"OK."  
"Was that the Doctor in my house or was I just dreaming?"  
He was at a crossroads, for the second time in a day. If he told Sarah the truth then she would miss him even more. If he said it was her imagination, and the Doctor did turn up, then he would be in fairly deep trouble. Finally he just decided to tell her the truth.

"Harry?" There was a note of panic in her voice.

"Yes."  
She never thought it would happen but it did.

"He said he would come back for me," Sarah explained, " But I didn't know if it would happen. I desperately wanted it to; I loved travelling with him and just when it seemed like this was the rest of my life, I had to leave. I would have definitely yelled at him if I'd been stronger."  
Harry chuckled. "Well you certainly made a good attempt at it."  
She grinned. "Thank you. It took forever to get to South Croydon from Aberdeen. And I didn't half attract some funny looks. I mean I had a case, a tennis racket, a flower and a cuddly toy owl."

Harry left after about an hour. Then it was Sarah alone in her thoughts. She settled down to try and read a copy of "Gone with the wind" that she'd found but couldn't concentrate.

She knew that if the Doctor ever turned up again then he would offer to take her with him again. She knew that the offer would be tempting but she might say no. But Sarah also knew that she would love the chance to travel just once more.

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No flames please. Thank you




	5. Old friend

A fortnight later, Sarah arrived at UNIT early one morning. It was November and bitterly cold. Sarah was covered in sleet as she arrived, and immediately ran into the Brigadier. He was delighted to see her, although slightly less so about the fact that sleet was running off the bottom of her coat, umbrella and bag all over the corridor.

"Miss Smith, it's marvellous to see you again! Have you recovered from the flu yet?" he said. Harry had said that the reason she had been in hospital was a very serious bout of flu, albeit under her instructions. She didn't want anyone to know that she had collapsed because the Doctor had turned up on the doorstep.

"Much better now Brigadier! So, how many documents have piled up for me to type out now?" Sarah often did some typing for UNIT whenever she could.

The Brig grinned. "You'll have to ask Mr Benton for the exact number, but we must have enough of them to paper three of the labs and have some left for the corridor."  
At that moment Sergeant Benton came around the corner. He was (as probably the rest of UNIT were) pleased to see her as well. The Brig had some work to do so Benton and Sarah went down the familiar path to the Doctor's lab before they even realised where they were going.  
"The Brig said I was to ask you how many documents have piled up for me to do," she said with a laugh.

Benton realised that they were now at the Doctor's lab. Still he couldn't get out of it now.

"We kept them all in here, cause nobody really comes in here any more," he said with an inward groan at his own stupidity. Why had he not just brought the stupid files up to her?

Nevertheless, Sarah got to work, typing away, so absorbed in her work that she didn't notice Harry come in about an hour later.

"Sarah?"  
She jumped. "For goodness sake, Harry, don't sneak up on me like that!"  
"Sorry. Have you seen my file on-"

Sarah pulled a piece of paper out of the typewriter with a flourish. She passed that and three other pieces of paper to Harry. "Here you go!"  
They chatted about this and that for a little while longer until Harry left to go and sort some things out in the medical room.

He stuck his head out of the door and then back in again.

"What did you do that for?" Sarah inquired, puzzled.

"Oh right. I never told you that Johnson had been promoted to Colonel, did I?"  
Sarah groaned. She had never liked Johnson, as he seemed to think that she shouldn't be in UNIT as all she did was the paperwork. However, most people agreed they would have gone spare without her.

"That's our sentiments, old thing." He laughed.

Sarah got back to her papers, before going to get some lunch. The afternoon progressed. Several members popped in and out to say hello and whatnot.

Around six in the evening (staying all day at UNIT was fairly common) she was just tidying up before leaving and talking to Harry again when a whooshing noise from the corner made them gasp, and Sarah whipped round so fast, her dark curls smacked her in the face.

A very old, very familiar police box had appeared out of nowhere in the lab. And out stepped a tall man with a fedora, a dark red coat and a stupidly long scarf. He looked shattered, as though he had dealt with a horrendous amount of things in a short space of time.

Sarah was frozen to the spot. "Doctor," she whispered.

The man, in spite of his weariness, smiled. "Hello, Sarah Jane."


	6. Back in the TARDIS

Here we are. Presenting Chapter Six! And I'm skipping Leela and the first Romana, so we are at Romana II. Get it? Got it? Good.

Don't own them. Meh.

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"What on earth are you doing here, Doctor?" Sarah said, still shocked to have had the TARDIS materialise three feet behind her. Her voice wasn't angry but more a mixture of hurt, surprise, and wonder. Harry hadn't said anything at all.

The Doctor didn't answer at first. He was busy walking around, and muttering. "What's all this paperwork doing here? Surely the Brigadier has somewhere else to put it?"  
"I said, Doctor," Sarah began, annoyance creeping into her voice now, "What are you doing here?"

Well, Harry thought, she had every right to be annoyed. The Doctor also seemed to have noticed the anger beginning to return to her voice, reminiscent of her last ten minutes on the TARDIS.

He risked a glance at her. She was slightly thinner, and her hair was longer, even though it was only a month since he had gone, but she still looked essentially the very same. Still as beautiful.

He rummaged in his pocket. _Give it a few seconds. 5, 4, 3,2, 1. _Sarah and Harry both knew what was coming.

"Would either of you like a jelly baby?" he offered. Both of them took one.

"Now, for the third time, why are you back here, Doctor?" Sarah said.

"Oh, great heavens, I remember now!" he said, beginning to grin again. " I cam back to ask you if you wanted to rejoin the TARDIS.

Harry gasped "What!" and Sarah cried "Both of us!"

"Good to see you haven't lost the power of speech, Harry. Now are you going to come?"  
"Give us time to decide, Doctor," Harry said, noticing that Sarah was inching towards the door and they rushed out into the deserted corridor.

"I don't know what to do! I want to go but I don't but I do!" Sarah 's voice was rising hysterically.

Harry pulled her into a hug to calm her down. When she did calm down, she asked him "Are you going to go?"  
"For one trip only," the medic replied. Sarah agreed. They returned and presented this propostition to the Doctor.

"What are you doing?" The Doctor asked incredulously.

"Leaving a note for the Brigadier, so he doesn't think we've gone AWOL."  
The Doctor rolled his eyes, and the TARDIS vanished when they stepped inside.

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While all this was going on, several members of UNIT were eavesdropping from outside the door. Benton and four others had rushed into the lab when they heard Sarah scream, spotted the TARDIS and retreated. When they heard Harry open the door, they had just enough time to scatter before they were caught.

"Blimey," Sgt. Benton whispered. "I'm going to see the Brig."  
The Brigadier was just as surprised as any of them when they informed him of the news. They all rushed down the corridor just in time to see the TARDIS dematerialise. Benton spotted a note on the floor.

_Brigadier,_

_Terribly sorry, but Sarah and myself have been called away to investigate something with the Doctor. Will explain everything upon return. Should be soon._

_Surgeon- Lieutenant Harry Sullivan_

"He's gone," The Brigadier said, sounding stunned.

"Sarah and Harry have gone with him?" Benton couldn't believe it.

The Brig held the note in his fist. He knew that Harry would be able to cope when he came back but Sarah? He wished, for the hundredth time since Sarah had made her entrance again, that he hadn't allowed her to work with the Doctor. Because when she returned home she might never be entirely happy.

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"Well, I say!" Harry said. "You've redecorated!"  
"Do you like it?" the Doctor said, and then without waiting for an answer, "You'd better go and find Sarah. There's something I need to show you both." Sarah had vanished within seconds of re-entering.

The TARDIS affectionately directed Harry to Sarah. She had been so happy to see them again that she went directly to the destination for once, and all without lurching about so that nobody smashed their head off the wall.

Tracing the familiar path, Harry found the door to Sarah's bedroom, and opened it. She was lying on her bed with her back to the door, strangely lifeless.

"Sarah, old girl, are you all right?"

She rolled over. Her face was pale and tear stained, and even now her eyes were still slightly liquid. Still, she had cried so much of late, she was buggered if she was going to cry again. She managed a weak smile. She didn't even complain that Harry called her old girl, which, as he thought to himself, was a first..

"Hi. Did the Doctor send you to find me?"  
"How did you guess?

"Easy." She pulled herself up into a sitting position. "Oh Harry, I can't deal with being back here!"  
He gave her another hug, and the effect was instantaneous. She calmed down and rested her head on his shoulder.  
"Are you going to tell me why the Doctor sent you?"  
"Oh yes. Apparently he has something to show us!"  
The two sauntered off down the corridor into the console room. There, standing beside the Doctor, was a woman with long blonde hair, who they didn't recognise.

"Sarah Jane Smith, Harry Sullivan, may I present Romanadvoratrelundar, or Romana. She's a Time Lord."

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Dun dun dun! Cliffhanger! BTW should I make this a Sarah/Harry or not? I am debating this, but it all depends on the opinion of the general public.


	7. Familiar feeling

NB: My portrayal of Romana may be awful. If you feel this way please feel free to kick my butt.

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Before anybody could say anything else, the TARDIS lurched so violently that it was practically horizontal. Romana, the Doctor and Harry had collided, very painfully with the opposite wall into the wall. Sarah had managed to grab onto the edge of the console, until there was an explosion and the room started to fill with smoke. Then she whizzed backward into the wall, protecting her head with her hands.

The Doctor struggled forward and managed to get the ship back under control, and everyone righted his or her self, albeit through very thick smoke.

"I say, Doctor, what happened there?" Harry choked as he stood up.

The Doctor's reply was slightly muffled, as his face was buried in his scarf. " This planet we're going to has very high security systems, and they affected the TARDIS."  
"How did they affect the TARDIS? And why are we going here anyway?" Romana said, tucking her blonde hair behind her ear.

"Well, they are very strong devices, and they scrambled the TARDIS' brains, is the simplest way of putting it?"

A "Know how she feels" came from somewhere to his right. Obviously Sarah wasn't best pleased at almost getting her head split open.

"And we are going to this planet to discover why a recent acquisition of a crystal from another galaxy is affecting the population of this planet."  
"Well, why did you call us back for that?" Sarah said.

"Well I thought you and Harry might enjoy this sort of thing."  
Harry shot a look at Sarah. "Where did he get that impression?" he whispered.

"Don't ask me," she whispered back.

With its usual wheeshing sound, the TARDIS landed, and the four stepped out.   
"This place is completely deserted," Harry said.

"Very well noticed, Harry,' the Doctor said without turning around. "But I must warn you all. These machines will do anything to break down your spirit if they think you are intruders."  
"And you think we'd like this sort of thing?" Sarah said, incredulously.

They walked on until Romana vanished down a hole.

"Romana?" The Doctor turned round so fast that Harry and Sarah had to duck to avoid getting hit by his scarf. Sarah's sharp eyes noticed the rapidity with which he turned round.

"I'm down here." her voice came floating up from a hole. "There's a slide down to it!"  
"Oh well!" The Doctor jammed his hat on his head, and vanished. Harry went next, and when Harry said it was safe to come down, Sarah steadied her nerve and pushed herself down the pipe. It was a fast ride to the bottom, with cool air rushing up into her face, and she rolled out at the bottom to be reunited with the rest of the group.

The Doctor spotted a door further along and motioned Harry, Sarah and Romana to come over.

The room was completely deserted, but a podium held a strange white object in a ray of light.

"Is that the crystal?" Romana whispered.

"Certainly is," the Doctor replied, not taking his eyes off it.

"How can a thing like that alter the mind of the entire planet?" Harry said, with a tone of puzzlement in his voice.

"I'm not sure, Harry." The Doctor was thinking. " How are we going to get inside?"  
"Use your sonic screwdriver, perhaps?" Sarah suggested.

"Good thinking!"

The screwdriver buzzed, and the door swung open with a click. They stepped inside. Suddenly Sarah heard something moving along the corridor.

"Doctor," she said, the shaky tone that always crept into her voice when she was nervous coming back, "I can hear something moving out here."  
So could everyone else. Romana spotted an alcove where they could hide, and quickly directed everyone into it.

The Doctor, Romana, Harry and Sarah stood as quietly as possible, as the voices crept nearer.


	8. My best friend

I'm feeling generous. I shall compensate for the awful last chapter and put up this one instead.

References "The Ark In Space" and my story Wind beneath my wings. Reading it isn't compulsory but I won't complain if you do.

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Nobody dared to breathe. Nobody dared to even blink. The two voices grew louder and they grew more nervous. The alcove seemed suddenly small and claustrophobic and Sarah had to fight to keep herself from hyperventilating.

The voices entered the room and she heard Romana give an involuntary gasp.

The two creatures were half human, half...well, not. They surrounded the crystal eliminating some of its brilliant white light. Their language was one which apparently the Doctor, and to a lesser extent, Romana could understand.

They stood there for quite some time. Finally the guards went away, and they could move.

"Did anyone have any idea what they were saying?" Harry said, sounding quite puzzled.

"Oh yes!" The Doctor looked a bit panicked. "There is apparently a fairly powerful chemical in that thing, and we need to destroy it. It controls people's minds."  
"And how do you propose we get to it? There's are force field and the tunnels surrounding it are miniscule!" Romana said, pointing out a difficulty.

The Doctor and Sarah hit upon the idea at the same time. Their opinions were somewhat different. Suffice it to say that Sarah did not think too highly of it.

"Oh no! Absolutely not! After what happened on the Nerva beacon, I am never going down a tunnel again!" she protested, remembering all too clearly her panic when she realised that, slim as she was, the tunnel would only be suited to anorexics, and the sting of the Doctor's "encouragement." True he hadn't meant a word of it but still...

"What did happen? Is this when you took the cable through the ventilator shaft?" said Harry, who had been off with Vira and Rogan at this point. Romana, who had obviously also never witnessed this, looked interested.

"Yes! When I got stuck, he tried to get me through the shaft by telling me that I was useless and I had no guts and other such goading insults. Of course he never meant it," she added, but with rapidity that was too fast to be real.

Well that cleared something up, Harry decided. He, Vira and Rogan had been extremely confused to hear the sound of Sarah crying but also "You wait till I get out!" floating through her radio.

" Well, it was the only thing I could think of!" The Doctor protested. "Anyway, it worked, didn't it?"  
After ten minutes, they finally persuaded Sarah to crawl through the tunnel.

"Blast it!" she muttered, scrambling her way along. The tunnel was sufficiently bigger, but she kept fearing the she would be trapped and it would get smaller and smaller.

"Ouch!" she moaned, jarring her elbow off the side.

When she finally got to the crystal, the Doctor, Harry and Romana were close enough to talk, but the tunnel was the only way back up.

"Doctor! Do I just take the crystal?" she whispered, unsure if there were guards about.

"Yes, and crawl back to us," he replied, but the second she touched the crystal, he realised he had given her the wrong instructions.

They knew something was terribly, terribly wrong. Sarah felt an electric shock going up her arm, and immediately tried to put the crystal down, but it suctioned itself to her palm. The electrical feeling was spreading all over her body and she was frightened. Then she felt herself beginning to rise, her back bending over like she was doing a back walkover, something she hadn't done for years. The sound of Amazing Grace was filling her ears and her mind was transported back to a time and a place she never wanted to go to again.

"_The piper played Amazing Grace like there was no tomorrow. It was a windy day as the sixty or so people stood in the graveyard. It was early September 1973, and Sarah Jane Smith was attending her best friend's funeral.  
Charlotte McCarthy had been Sarah's best friend since before she could remember. They lived right next door to each other, and shared everything growing up. They had gone to gymnastics together and they spent ages practising to get their things just right. It was Charlie who taught Sarah to make friendship bracelets, and Sarah who taught Charlie long multiplication. At 15 they had seen the Beatles together, one of the happiest days of their lives. When Charlie's daughter Stephanie was born, Sarah was named as her godmother. Sarah still wrote to Stephanie, and the replies she got back always made her heart ache for her, even though, apparently she loved Canada._

_Charlie had a tattoo of a sun on her shoulder that she got about a month before she died, when she had been hit by a bus that was being used for training. She died at the scene. Sarah had been there and she remembered too well rushing into the road to grab her best friend's hand, and to tell her she would make it, that they had so much to do, like go shopping together. But Charlie hadn't responded Sarah sat with her for twenty minutes until a policeman finally persuaded her to leave her side. she had sat stroking Charlie's hair, and holding her hand, and telling her that one day they would do what they had always wanted to and go on a Thelma and Louise style trip across America.._

_The graveyard was filled with people. Little Stephanie was just three years old, and her father was taking her to Canada to live. She would never know her amazing mother._

_Sarah felt her eyes begin to burn and sting with tears, the bracelet she had made with Jackie's help when she was nine around her wrist She threw a handful of dirt on top of the coffin, and for the last time said goodbye to her very best friend.._

Back on the ground, the three others looked at her in a mixture of alarm and panic. "What on earth is that doing to her, Doctor?" Harry said, looking very concerned.

"When I said it made you relive your worst moments, I was right," said the Doctor, frowning as he looked up at Sarah Jane.

Up in the air, the electrical feeling stopped, but Amazing Grace, a song she could never listen to without crying kept going. Then, Sarah realised suddenly that she was falling, and remembered nothing except hitting the ground at point blank range.


	9. The Crystal of Doom

Chapter 9.

Not mine, not mine, yes yes, I think we all know the drill by now.

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"Doctor," Romana said, bringing him out of his trance. "Give me your scarf!"  
"Why?"  
"I'm going to try and get through to get Sarah," she said, yanking it from round his neck and almost choking him.

Harry watched Romana crawl on her stomach through the tiny space. She was just small enough. Why had they let Sarah go in the first place? The Doctor had always been like that though, willing to put her (and to a lesser extent, him) in unintentional danger so they could get the job done and dusted, but he often never realised the extent of the danger. However, he had realised that as soon as she touched the crystal, she shouldn't have and he shouldn't have told her to. She had rised into the air bent almost double backward, her long hair brushing her heels, and stayed like that for about five minutes. Falling from that height, she would be lucky not to be paralysed.

Romana wriggled the last four feet and ran over to Sarah. She was lying on the ground, completely out of it and the crystal was about three feet away. It must have been dropped when she fell.

"Sarah?" Romana hissed, shaking her shoulder. The journalist groaned, and opened her eyes.

"Are you OK?"  
"Ow." Sarah struggled to sit up, and shook her head to clear her puzzled mind. Her back and head hurt, but not as much as her heart. She still hadn't forgotten the pain of losing Charlotte, or the swoop in her stomach whenever she saw a letter from Stephanie.

"What happened?" Romana said. She had ben pulling the Doctor's scarf out of the tunnel for the last minute.

" I touched that crystal, and then I was flying, I think. And remembering my best friend's funeral. And then I fell."

Romana nodded and helped her up, just as the Doctor spoke. "Romana? Sarah Jane?"  
The two women went over as close as they could to the edge of the force field. "Yes, Doctor?" Sarah said.

"Bring that crystal back with you."  
Harry spoke next. "Sarah? Are you all right old thing?"

"I'm not a thing Harry! And yes, thank you, I'm fine."

"How are we going to get the crystal back to the Doctor?" Romana said, tucking a strand of blonde hair behind her ear.  
Sarah had an idea. She grabbed the Doctor's scarf, and wrapped it around the crystal, praying fervently that it wouldn't burn a hole in it or something, as the Doctor wouldn't like that. From what Harry had told her, he hadn't been very chuffed when the sensor on Nerva beacon scorched it. And moths eating the scarf had been the bane of his life.

Fortunately it worked. With scarf still intact, Sarah crawled along the tunnel, followed by Romana. When they reached the other end, she gave the scarf to the Doctor. Harry was amazed Sarah had fallen ten feet with only bruises to show for it.

"What are you going to do with that Doctor?" Harry said, watching him put the crystal on the ground and rummage in his pocket.

The Doctor zapped the crystal with the sonic screwdriver. "I'm going to see if this will destroy it. Still, it's very risky. The cave might explode!"  
Despite the cheery tone of his voice, his three companions were looking at him like he had two heads.

"And you chose to tell us this now?" said Sarah.


	10. Final goodbye

Well here we are. After six months, the final chapter has arrived. I may do a sequel. Big thank you to my three reviewers, especially to Laby Anne Boleyn for being so consistent with reviewing my stories.

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"Forgive me for pointing out the obvious," said Harry, "but if it's going to explode, why are we still standing next to it."  
"Good point," said the Doctor.

They ran up the corridor like their lives depended on it. _Just like old times_ thought Sarah.

Then they encountered a problem.

"How on earth are we going to get back up that slide?" Romana said. "Should we find another direction?" The four turned and ran back the way they came, when there was a massive explosion. Sarah was thrown back twenty feet by the force of the blast, coming to rest at the Doctor's feet. It sounded as though something very flammable had been caught in the inferno.

"There's nothing for it!" the Doctor yelled above the noise, lifting Sarah back up to her feet. "We'll have to go back up into the slide. There may be a ladder at the side of it!"

So back they went, unable to breathe properly and eyes watering from the choking smoke. The heat was rapidly becoming uncomfortable, and they had less than ten minutes to get out alive.

Harry spotted the ladder first, but you would have to monkey crawl up half of it. They were already unbelievably tired, and the heat wasn't helping one bit. He pointed this out to the Doctor. The Doctor swung himself up onto it, and vanished out of sight.  
"It looks a bit difficult," Romana decided, but up she went. Finally, only Harry and Sarah were left. Sarah looked wretched. She was exhausted and the sojourn with the crystal didn't help one iota. She sank down onto the ground, not caring that if she didn't get out within five minutes, she would die.

"I can't do this Harry. There's no way I can," she murmured. She was nothing like the self confident, strong woman they all knew. Harry didn't want to go the extreme he did, but he had no option. The fire was creeping nearer, and smoke was making it hard to see through.

"Do it for your best friend," he said, looking her in the eye. That did it. Sarah jumped up, and grasped onto the hand ladder, and started her journey up, followed by Harry.

When they finally reached the top, the Doctor and Romana were waiting. The Doctor looked at his companions. They were covered in bruises, scratches and soot. Romana looked very tired, Harry quite pale, and Sarah close to tears. But they were all alive.  
They went off back to the TARDIS, and Sarah spoke before the Doctor had even reached the control panel.

"Doctor, me and Harry need to get back from where we left off," she said, launching into the hardest few words of her life. "We said we'd only go for one trip, and it's over and done with."  
At this point, Harry tactfully muttered something about going to find his jacket, and Romana about looking for a hairbrush.

The Doctor and Sarah were left alone, for a much needed talk.

"Are you sure you don't want to come, Sarah Jane?" he said, suddenly looking like he did when he arrived in the UNIT office, exhausted and tired.

She also looked as if it was a struggle to move on, but Sarah Jane Smith never went down without a fight.  
"I can't Doctor. I've had my time, and if I stay for as long, or longer than I did, then the leaving again will be harder," she said, looking him directly in the eye, and shocked to see the hurt in them.  
"Are you sure?"  
"Yes." She swallowed. "By the way, did we end up in the right place?"  
The Doctor smiled, and checked the coordinates. "Hopefully, we should."

"I'll go and find Harry," Sarah said, feeling her eyes begin to burn with tears. She turned her head so that he didn't see.

Romana passed Sarah as she made her exit. "Are you OK?" she whispered. Sarah nodded, and they heard her rush down the corridor.

The Doctor watched her go. As much as it hurt to admit it, she was right. But that didn't make it hurt any less.

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The TARDIS materialised across from the UNIT HQ. It was fairly dark, and cold outside. Harry and Sarah Jane looked at the Doctor for what would be the last time for a good long while.

"Well, goodbye, Harry. Nice meeting you. And you, Sarah," said Romana.

"You too," said Harry.

Sarah smiled slightly; quite pleased they'd ended up in the right place for once.

"See you, Romana. Bye, Doctor," she said, and on that note they left the TARDIS.

The Doctor and Romana watched them cross the street. It was snowing and they could here Sarah singing "Downtown" as she and Harry headed toward the HQ and the Brigadier.

"Oh bother," the Doctor said, as a thought struck him.

"What?"  
"I meant to ask Sarah where I left her that wasn't South Croydon!"

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Bye bye. Be sure to Check out the "Record Room collection." Part two, Beautiful Stranger coming soon.

Marshmallow xxxxxx


End file.
